John Chad, Bachelor Degree in Computer Science & Computer Engineering.
Russel Collins
Monitors can be a very complicated subject. There are many different types of monitors, and every company uses their own system for naming them. It’s commonly asked about drivers for monitors and if they’re needed or not, this article will discuss what drivers are, why or if they are necessary, and how to go about installing new ones if you find yourself with a broken monitor on your hands.
What are drivers?
Drivers are the software that runs on your computer to allow it to communicate with hardware and other peripherals. Drivers don’t do anything by themselves, but they provide an interface between what you see or hear and how you interact with the device in question. They can also improve performance by optimizing input/output from a device and they sometimes include security features as well. The drivers for monitors are usually installed automatically when installing Windows; however, occasionally there may be conflicts if more than one monitor is connected at boot time.(Very rare!)
Do Monitors Need Drivers?
They do but they usually already come installed with windows and that’s all you need really. When buying a new monitor you will not need to install any drivers in most cases. In VERY rare cases, you may have to install them if running 144hz monitors, however, most of the time if the monitor isn’t running 144hz properly it’s most likely due to either the monitor being faulty or your GPU drivers not being up to date.
Overall, you don’t need to worry about them for your screen, just plug it in and it should work without having to install anything.
If, for some reason your screen does need them, they can usually be found in the manufacturers website.
People often confuse monitor drivers with the .inf files that are found on the manufacturer website, they’re not drivers, they’re basically profiles that you use to change your screens settings to the settings that are included in the file. It’s simply an easy way to properly setup your monitor to have good colors, etc.
The most important thing that the .inf does is make sure that what you see on your screen matches up with how it looks on your monitor by adjusting things like resolution and color balance, as well as a bunch of other misc features like sharpness, etc…
How do I check my monitor drivers?
Checking your monitor & GPU drivers is a good idea if you notice any problems with the display. The two easiest ways of checking are by opening Device Manager and looking for “Monitor” or right-clicking on the desktop, selecting Display Settings > Advanced Settings > Monitor tab.
If you’re not sure which driver to download from your computer manufacturer’s website, there are websites that can help identify what type of graphics card is in your PC based on its model number. A quick google search will also often tell you which ones you need to download based on-screen model.
Conclusion
We hope this was helpful, overall you shouldn’t need to worry about them but if you have problems with your screen display then make sure to check if windows really did install properly your screen drivers as well as GPU since they’re most commonly the issue. If you notice any problems with sharpness or other display-related issues like image quality or color quality, downloading a profile from the manufacturer’s website may prove to be an efficient solution to the problem!